The Beast Within
by Padfoot's Blondie
Summary: When John Lupin insults Fenrir Greyback, Greyback decides that a suitable way to get revenge on Lupin is to turn Lupin's beloved son Remus into a werewolf. This is the story of how Remus Lupin became a creature of the night.


**Hey, guys! Enjoy! :D**

"Remus! Come on downstairs honey, it's dinnertime! Daddy isn't home yet, so we'll eat without him today." The sweet sound of his mother, Emilie's, voice wafted up the stairs and through the doorway into the bedroom as the large grandfather clock in the hallway chimed seven o'clock.

Emilie looked at the clock, slightly worried. Her husband worked at the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but he had never been this late.

Five-year-old Remus Lupin looked up from his game of Exploding Snap eagerly (it was rather boring to play alone) and scurried out of the doorway. He tumbled down the stairs and crashed to a stop, laying flat on his back on the floor.

His mother called, concerned, "Remus, are you okay, sweetie?" Emilie walked down the hallway to the staircase and found him lying on the floor, flat on his back. She crouched down and swept her hand across his forehead, brushing the stray tawny hairs from his face.

"Are you hurt?" She checked him over, looking for blood, bruises, and cuts, anything, until she heard a soft giggle bubble up from her young son's lips. She looked back up at his adorable toddler face and gazed into his guileless royal blue eyes.

His mother smacked him lightly, playfully on the arm. "You silly little boy, my Remmie. You scared Mommy!"

Remus sat up and patted the top of his Emilie's head. "I'm sorry, Mommy! I just couldn't resist." He grinned mischievously at her. At that precise moment, a huge bang and shouts of pain came from outside. His mother quickly snatched Remus up, and she hurried to the window with Remus in her arms.

"Mommy, what was that?" Remus cried, distraught.

His mother peered through the curtains and gasped. She ran away from the window with Remus and ran into the dining room. She hurriedly placed Remus down and turned him around so she could look him in the eyes. She crouched down so that they were at eye level, and stared into Remus's dreamy dark blue eyes.

"Mommy! What is going on?" Remus's eyes had started streaming tears. Emilie wiped away the tears with the pad of her thumb, and then gripped his shoulders tightly.

"Remus, you must listen to me. Now." Remus's mother's voice was hard, but there were several other qualities about it. Terror, shock, and horror were also prominent. The tone she used forced Remus to look at his mother in the eyes. The tears poured over his face with urgency now and showed no sign of stopping.

"Remus, I want you to hide here, and _do not, under any circumstances, come out until myself, your father, or an adult that you think you can trust comes to get you. _Understand?" Remus said nothing and just stared at her, eyes impossibly wide. Desperately, Emilie let out a hiss and shook him, hard.

"Remus, you must answer me so I know you will be safe!" She cried, tears now streaming out of her own eyes. Remus shakily nodded.

Emilie eyed the small crevice between the corner and the bureau and nodded at Remus.

"I need you to hide in there. Now, repeat quickly to me what Mommy wants you to do." Her son looked back at her, terror in his normally placid features.

His trembling voice cut through the tense atmosphere. "Stay in here, hide, and don't come out for anyone who doesn't look like I can trust them."

His mother nodded again, her throat too tight to speak. She looked out the big bay window right next to Remus's hiding spot, where the sun was just about set. It was the night of the full moon, which would make its first appearance in about half an hour. She gathered Remus up in her arms for one last quick hug and then she stood.

Emilie stood tall, took out her wand, and then she was gone. Remus, now bawling, crawled into his tiny hiding spot. He tried to stifle his sobs as he looked out the big window next to his hiding spot. Soon, his favorite thing in the sky, the full moon, would be out. It would keep him company. Armed with this comforting thought, he successfully stopped sobbing. Tears still streamed down his cheeks, but the noise was at a minimum.

Remus wished his mother had stayed with him. He drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them there. His eyes glistened with tears as he wiped his running nose against his knee. A dark stain spread across his light pants.

He remembered the screams of pain he had heard a few minutes previously and his rolled back into his head as he let out a small moan. His head dropped onto his knees and he attempted to bury himself in himself, trying to make himself as small as possible. Remus had never felt so alone.

**Meanwhile…**

Emilie Apparated to the front yard where she had seen her husband, John, laying immobile and moaning, covered in blood and injuries. She sprinted over to John and immediately put healing charms on all his visible injuries. Her instincts, however, told her that his injuries were too big to heal by herself. She crouched down next to her husband, like she had done to her son just minutes before.

She lightly slapped his face to get him to look at her. She suspected he had gone into shock.

"John," Emilie whispered frantically. His glazed eyes found hers and a dribble of saliva ran out of his mouth onto the ground.

John coughed, and flecks of blood came up as well. He cleared his throat, and it made a wet, squelching sound that made Emilie want to throw up. She forced her lunch back down to its proper place and gripped his hand. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Em," her husband croaked. "I don't have much longer." He said this in a very frank way, and tears once again filled her eyes and spilled over.

"Just tell me what's going on so I can protect Remus," she cried, burying her head in her husband's blood-soaked coat. He grunted in pain. She quickly lifted her head up, horrified.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't think!" She was sobbing now. He lifted up an unsteady hand and ran it down her arm.

"Emily," he started. He stopped for a few seconds to cough again, then continued. "I was smoothing over more complaints about werewolves today, because people were naturally more apprehensive today, as they should be on nights of the full moon. Just before I was about to come home, Fenrir Greyback, one of the most dangerous, and sadistic of all the werewolves walks into my office, and starts provoking me, trying to pick a fight.

"Everyone in my department had already left for the night, and I was on my own with an exceedingly savage werewolf who was trying to get into a fight with me, on the full moon, nonetheless. So we had a little back-and-forth, and in the end, I said something, I don't remember it now, but it offended him immensely. He attacked me, though he didn't have a wand. My own wand was snapped in half during the attack, but I just managed to Apparate away. He's coming, Emilie. He'll be here to get his revenge."

With these words, her husband let out another bought of horrible coughing. Emilie was openly crying now. She gripped her husband's hand even harder and whispered to him.

"Why us?" She looked brokenly at her husband, but he chose that moment to fade from consciousness. She knew his time was near, and that she had to stay strong for Remus, her lovely young son. She kissed John on the cheek and stood up.

Emilie glanced down at her husband once more before lifting up her gaze to the sky. The full moon was beginning its appearance from the behind the clouds. It was about five minutes before it would be fully exposed, and all the werewolves everywhere would turn into the bloodthirsty monsters that were always inches below their lying human skin.

Emilie allowed herself to revel in the beauty of the sliver of the full moon before turning to go retrieve Remus to get herself and him the hell out of there to hide somewhere far away.

However, before Emilie even managed to turn fully around, there was a loud crack behind her. She whirled around, and barely caught sight of an alluring yet cruel face as a jet of bright green light hit her squarely in the chest, and she died instantly.

Fenrir Greyback barely spared Emilie a second glance as he quickly took in his surroundings. He recognized the bloodied body of John Lupin, the vermin that had insulted him hours previously.

Greyback had briefly remembered overhearing that Lupin had a son, and decided that a good way to seek revenge against Lupin was to turn his precious little brat into a werewolf, a creature of the night.

He glanced up at the night sky above him. The moon was about halfway out from behind the clouds, and he knew he didn't have much time left. He needed to find the child before he turned into a werewolf. He knew his appearance would scare the child, and that was what he was here for. Causing pain and fear in the loved ones of those who had insulted and angered him.

The werewolf broke down the front door of the house with a well-aimed kick. The door collapsed inwards with a resounding _crack!_ He grinned at the damage and stepped inside the doorway.

His senses, heightened by the full moon, smelled the scent of a living human extremely nearby. He let his nose guide him to the dining room, where he supposed the family used to eat their dinner.

He looked out the large bay window across the room and had to suppress a howl at the tempting moon and its almost full exposure. He was not worried now, though; he knew the whelp was in this room. He heard quiet whimpers and quick breath form the corner of the room and smiled, he had found his target.

He walked over to the corner of the room and looked into the little gap between the corner and the bureau and found the cute toddler with tears of fear streaming down his face. The boy slowly lifted up his head, and met the golden, feral eyes of the intruder. His eyes widened impossibly for the second time that night. His face was the epitome of terror.

Greyback grinned, exposing his lengthening teeth.

"Hello, little one," he growled, just before the moon made its full appearance in the night sky, bathing the bay window and Greyback in moonlight.

Greyback screamed, feeling the transformation from man to wolf, with his bones, organs, and basic anatomy rearranging itself to fit that of the wolf's. When the transformation was complete, the magnificent wolf turned and let out a deafening howl to the moon, and turned towards Remus, who yelled in horror.

The wolf lunged and bit down on Remus's midsection, on his right side. Remus screamed an animalistic scream, loud and so obviously filled to the brim with pain. Greyback threw Remus with his teeth across the room, and jumped on top of him. The wolf howled again, claiming Remus as his own.

Remus was still screaming, and once he thought that the pain was too much to take, almost as if he couldn't even see the point in screaming anymore, he suddenly stopped. When Remus stopped screaming, Greyback immediately fled. He needed the new werewolf to make the connection with the moon in human form, and he could not interfere with it.

The pain was gone. Remus Lupin opened his eyes, which were now a feral amber color. His canine teeth sharpened considerably, and the bite on his midsection stopped bleeding. It turned into a massive silver scar on his side, and it burned in the moonlight. Remus, although he was now a werewolf, did not turn into the wolf this moon cycle. Not yet. He would have to wait for the next one to truly let out the beast within.

Remus Lupin ran outside, turned to the moon, and howled. His howl. His moon. The beast now within could not be contained. It was Remus now, and Remus was it. No turning back.

**Yeah, I know the ending is cheesy. But everyone loves cheese! :D**

**Thanks for reading! Review! :) **


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